When I was a laddie, I was in the Cubs, Scouts and Venture Scouts at 2nd Portobello Sea Scout troop, at the Old Parish Church on Bellfield Street (though it was Melville Street then - or was it the other way round?).

Looking at the Edinburgh Scouts web-site recently, there was no mention of, or link to, the 2nd Porty Sea Scouts. Does this troop no longer exist? If not, what happened? Does anyone know?

Yeh the 2nd are no more Im afraid. Venture Scouts (which are now explorer scouts) folded a good few years back, and the scouts went a few years after.

The cubs did survive a bit longer but due to lack of leaders they had to pack in as well.

Scouting in Portobello is not in good shape, I was in the 9th Porty who were based at St Marks - just round from the 2nd - and we enjoyed a few nights of playing football, handball against the 2nds in the good old days.

3rds only have cubs and the 12ths at the royal high school are about to fold also

Hi Charlie, my son went to the cubs and scouts at the Old Parish and went on to become a leader himself. Unfortunately it wasn't just a lack of leaders that forced them to fold, it was also a lack of boys joining. When he went I think they were lucky to have around six members. He moved on to help run a pack at Abbeyhill and again they used to have three or four boys turning up each week. He finally called it a day earlier this year due to other commitments so not sure if they are still running or not.
Fortunately the brownies and guides are still going strong.

I know that the Scouts are often regarded as an anachronism in these times but I would never have experienced sailing, canoeing and hillwalking if it hadn't been for the Scouts.

I have particularly happy memories of summer Friday evenings, taking the canoes down to the beach, paddling out and surfing back in. And what seemed like endless weekends on Puffin and Fijit, sailing from Fisherrow.

Jim Colvine was the leader when I was there. He went to New Zealand. Has he ever been heard of in Porty again, I wonder?

This is all beginning to be like a history thread, so I'll stop. I have photos from camps that we went to, in the late 60s and early 70s. Would it be worthwhile scanning them and posting them on the history bit? Since they have people in them, would it even be allowed? If it is, I would be happy to do so.

Hi. Charlie I read your old post today, and it brought back many fond memories. I went from the cubs to the 2nd Portobello scouts around 1960. Jim Colvine was my patrol leader his elder brother Bob was troop leader and there was also his younger brother Sandy.

The scout master at that time was the minsters son but I do not recall his name.He was succeeded by Barry Gilbert who was the person that introduced sailing and canoeing to the troop and this was the time we changed to become sea scouts. I remember having to sand and varnish the 2 boats every year and also canoeing down the Tweed on a number of occasions, usually starting of from Peebles

I remember a number of summer camps, my first one was near Pitlochry, others were in the grounds of Longformacus House in East Lothian and Ringour farm near new Galloway in Aug 1964. A number of us once spent a Christmas in a rundown cottage near Lauder, with lots of snow and not a lot of heating.